


Lost Signal

by autobotscoutriella



Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Genre: Angst, Community: fandomweekly, Gen, Implied Character Death, Post-Canon, bad day, if you squint or if you want it to be canon compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 11:40:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18659716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autobotscoutriella/pseuds/autobotscoutriella
Summary: Scorponok misses Blackout. And its tail.





	Lost Signal

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [FandomWeekly](https://fandomweekly.dreamwidth.org/215753.html) prompt "Bad Day".

The brutal heat burns into the scorpion drone's dented, battered frame, no matter how deep it burrows into the sliding, grinding sand, and whenever it surfaces, the wind pounds at its armor until it is forced back underground. Between the damage from the humans' guns and the constant swirling dust working its way into every joint, Scorponok's systems are deteriorating faster than its self-repairs can keep up. It needs energon, but there is none to be found in this wasteland. More than that, it needs to link back up with its host, and he is nowhere to be found either. He must be too far away. Scorponok hasn't picked up any Decepticon frequencies since fleeing the organic aerial attack.

Every eight minutes, the drone sends out a distress signal on the pre-arranged frequency, just as it has every eight minutes for the last fourteen days. No one has answered yet, Decepticon, Autobot, or otherwise.

Damaged tail nerves send stabs of pain through the drone's frame every time it moves. Without its weapons, it's left almost defenseless, helpless against any organics that might decide to come after it for revenge or to scavenge parts—and its injuries mean that burrowing is difficult, and travel is excruciating.

Scorponok misses Blackout. The helicopter has always taken good care of his drone, protecting it from severe injury and coming back for it whenever the two are separated. He has never not answered a distress call.

Until this time. No matter how many times the drone calls, or how many different frequencies it uses, Blackout never responds. Distress signal after distress signal has gone out, but the reassuring pings the drone is desperately waiting for have never come back.

Maybe he would have responded, if Scorponok had succeeded in its mission. The organics are still alive, despite the arachnid's best efforts, and now, injured and slowly running out of energon, it has no hope of hunting them down. Maybe Blackout is waiting for his drone to complete the mission before coming back for it, and if it cannot do that, then it will not be rescued.

But the drone has failed before, and Blackout still came back for it.

Scorponok curls into a ball, tucking its throbbing tail around its side. Above its makeshift burrow, wind howls and whips sand into a swirling, grinding vortex. Blackout could fly even in the worst sandstorm, but in its current damaged state, the drone's joints will be shredded by sand. It has no choice but to wait for rescue, or for the storm to let up, whichever comes first.

Eight minutes have passed. Scorponok sends out another distress signal on all Decepticon frequencies.

No one responds.


End file.
